US to abolish permanent alimony, India to make it more 'anti-male'
16 July, 2013

Internationally, there is a minor shift in mindset when it comes to alimony. Alimony has always been the dreading factor for men to break free of tumultuous marriages and abusive wives. Because of rampant misandry in the society, judicial system views a man trying to break free of a bad marriage as a criminal and someone who wants to escape responsibility.

This anti-male social mindset had led to a very bad practice of slapping men with unreasonable, extorting and humungous orders of alimony. This practice was amplified by the media so as to spread fear amongst men, and as a result men rarely complain about their bad and abusive wives.

Alimony has ruined many a million men financially, economically and socially leading to extremely high suicide rates amongst men globally.

In India, married men commit two times more suicides compared to married women. This ratio has been four times in the US. And interestingly, such high suicide rates amongst men have never struck a chord with the sensibilities of the human society to such an alarming level capable of triggering a tangible reaction to contain the same.

But, as more and more men continued to be harassed by judiciary that was totally insensitive and unsympathetic, rather pathetic towards men, the emergence of men’s rights activists was the call of the day and the formation of men’s rights organizations was waiting to happen.

Sustained efforts by them have seen some semblance of a change with Florida and Massachusetts reforming their alimony laws and taking steps to abolish permanent alimony. However, India still needs to learn a lesson or two. On one hand, Indian Government imports all western laws to India; however, it cherry picks only those ones which suit her gender agenda and vote-bank politics.

The classic example of a gender neutral sexual harassment law worldwide while India passing a similar gender biased, one-sided anti-male law only tells how much regressive our politicians and bureaucrats are.

India imported VAWA, 1992 (Violence Against Women Act) from the US and implemented PWDVA, 2005 (Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act) here.

Now India plans to import the No-Fault Divorce from the West and implement it here in the form of Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010. By way of this law, India seeks to introduce a new ground for divorce called the Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage (IrBM) for granting quick no-fault divorce.

But in the bout of its frenzied male hatred (misandry), India also seeks to introduce property division clauses, which are dangerously anti-husband in nature with the following highlights:

1. Post-divorce, wife will get a share of at least 50% in the properties owned by husband (including ancestral, pre-marital acquired, post marital acquired) irrespective of properties owned by her.

2. Husband won’t be having any chance to oppose the divorce but wife will have if she is not happy with the alimony (cash, property or kind) received.

3. Husband won’t be absolved from matrimonial litigation other than divorce like false dowry case, false domestic violence case, etc. even after divorce and he would have to continue to fight those cases against the state in order to prove his innocence against false allegations.

4. There is no guarantee that a man would have access to his children post-divorce.

5. If husband doesn’t own property, he will have to give equivalent amount of alimony.

So, on one hand, where the US is considering to abolish permanent alimony and rationalize it so that men are not burdened unnecessarily with frivolous alimony orders, India plans to donate at least 50% of hard-earned property of Indian husbands under the cute name of alimony.

The internationally changing trends in alimony seem to be crisscrossing each other wherein the West is trying hard to undo the harm it has done to men over the decades while India plans to become more anti-male.

This should be a warning signal for Indian men. Marry and invest in properties at your own risk. It’s just a matter of time and chance (like a gamble) as to whose marriage breaks and the man stands to lose his lifetime of a fortune in one stroke of a divorce decree.

Alimony in India is no longer a cash payment; it’s going to become All-Money including properties.

About The Author

Virag R Dhulia, a software professional, has been a prominent men's rights activist. He has been engaged in creating awareness about the abuse of men and their families through anti-male and gender biased laws like Section 498A, Domestic Violence Act etc. He has been instrumental in networking with fellow men's rights activist both across India and abroad and has played key roles in organizing events to create awareness about abuse of men by the society. A book titled, 'The Secrets of Manhood' authored by Virag has been published. This book is a collection of short articles which focus on issues and problems faced by men and how men are victims of social stereotypes.